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“Goddamn it!”She threw herself back against the pillows and pounded her fists into the blankets.She glanced at him.“This wasn’t directed at you.It’s for my idiot ancestors.We don’t even have a fucking properhospitalhere, and medical equipment and all of that has only been a couple of days’ spaceflight away all this time?”
Rhys took a seat on the bed next to her.Tears had gathered in her eyes and she squeezed them shut.“Hannah, you don’t have to live like that anymore.We can obtain anything your planet needs.”
“Ourplanet,” she corrected him.
He liked that she said that.“Yes.We also have ways of purchasing these items.”
“I hadn’t even considered the money aspect.”She covered her face in her hands.“I’m really bad at this.”
He pulled them away.“You are not.I do think it would be prudent to call a meeting at the amphitheater.We will have to discuss travel schedules and supply lists.”
He didn’t let go of her hands and she didn’t pull away.Instead, their eyes locked on each other.Something in the room shifted, as palpable as an incoming storm, and Rhys was again aware that they were both still undressed.Her nipples tented the thin bedsheet, and her breath came a little faster.So did Rhys’s.He leaned over and kissed her, putting everything he could into it, hoping he pleased her as much as she’d pleased him the night before.She made a whimpering noise against his lips, so he supposed he did.A surge of pride and lust welled in him that he could do that.
Her upper body shifted, back arching as though she wanted to be closer to him.With shaking fingers, he reached for the sheet separating their bodies and slipped it down.Guided by an instinct he hadn’t known he possessed, his mouth kissed a path down her throat, past her collarbones, to her breast, ready to take one nipple into his mouth.Hannah gasped beneath him, her hands fisting in his hair, encouraging him to go lower.Her grip sent anticipation thrumming through him as the possibilities of what could come next flew through his mind.
A knock at the front door had both of them frozen in place on the bed.Rhys met Hannah’s surprised gaze.“What the fuck?”she whispered.
“We could ignore it,” Rhys said.
“I like the way you’re thinking.”Another knock, more insistent this time, sounded through the house.“But whoever it is won’t go away until I talk to them.”She climbed out of bed, leaving Rhys on top of the covers.She let out a small sigh as she picked up a worn robe, tying its sash around her waist.“Poor Rhys.You’re in quite a state.”She gave a pointed look at his erection.It nearly hurt.
Suddenly feeling a little shy, Rhys cleared his throat.“It’s a testament to you.”
She laughed, then leaned over and kissed him.“I think that’s the hottest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
Rhys kissed her back, the realization that it was the first time he’d ever seen her laugh hitting him hard.He thought he might’ve just seen a glimpse of the old Hannah, the woman she was before her planet was plunged into chaos.He wanted to see more of her.“I have other, more explicit platitudes as well.”
“Keep them coming.”She ran a hand through her tangled hair.“Actually, wait until I see whoever is at the door and send them away.”Before she left the bedroom, she added, “Don’t come downstairs unless you’re dressed.I don’t want to make this a thing for gossip just yet.”With that admonishment, she left, footsteps echoing down the creaky stairs.
Rhys tried not to let that statement sting as much as it did, true as it was.Revealing their physical relationship, brand-new as it was, would only muddy the relationship between his people and the New Edeners.It was easier for everyone this way.
Still naked, he crept over to the doorway and listened to the conversation playing out at Hannah’s front door.A man’s voice had started rising in volume as he vented his frustrations about a house.Rhys’s memory banks matched the voice to the face of an older man named Ollie, the one who was so upset about cyborgs living on New Eden.
“There are four of them in my uncle’s house!”Ollie said.
“You’ve already told me that, and I knew it, anyway, after the billeting arrangements were decided,” Hannah replied wearily.“I’m not sure why we’re having this conversation at this time in the morning.”
“It’s half-past nine, and frankly, I’m surprised you’re still lying around in your pajamas.”
Rhys’s ire rose at the man’s impudence.
“Everyone’s entitled to sleep in once in a while,” Hannah said sharply.“And not that I need to clear this with you, but today, I’m going to be looking into repairing the spaceport.”
Rhys’s ears strained to hear the sound of Ollie’s enraged breathing.“Why the hell would you do that?”
Hannah’s voice rose in anger.“Why the hell wouldn’t I do that?We don’t have ahospital, Ollie!We don’t have any medication!We were a dying people before the earthquake ever happened!”
“Listen here, young lady.If you think I’m going to stand back and watch as you destroy what our ancestors created, I have some news for...”
“Oh, shut up.”Rhys bit back a smile as he heard Ollie’s gasp.“Our ancestors were fucking idiots, and if we keep trying to live as they did, we’re going to die out in a couple of years.There’s a big galaxy out there.We need their help.Living like this isn’t sustainable anymore.”
“It would be, if...”
Hannah cut him off again.“If what?You do realize we didn’t have the strength or technology to bring the power grid back online, and it’s not like you’ve actually done anything to help out since the quake.”
Rhys leaned over the railing, wishing he was downstairs to see the old man’s expression as Hannah laid into him.
“You sit in your house, waiting for food to be delivered to you, then complain when it’s nothing but carrots and eggs!”she shouted.“You show up to community meetings and whine about not having electricity.You’ve done nothing but complain since the quake.You didn’t even help with the cleanup outside of your own fucking yard.”Ollie made a noise, as if to protest, but Hannah forged on.“You’ve contributed nothing since the earthquake happened.You didn’t even help bury the dead.You didn’t evenloseanyone in the quake, yet you refuse to help anyone who did.”
